Welcome

The Future Building – what will our industry look like in 10-20 years’ time?

Technology is changing the world and many of the jobs carried out by humans now will be done by machine in the future…including many engineering roles.

China is currently building a dam using no human labour at all with the project driven by Artificial Intelligence; and the urgent need to move away from fossil fuels is already starting to transform the way we interact with buildings.

This session will look at the implications all this and more has for our industry and the type of jobs we will be doing in the future.

The Human Building – why a building is like a human body and what that means for its services

Building services bring buildings to life. If the structure is the skeleton, then the services are the brain, lungs, and arteries that make the building function.

This session will examine how we can use this metaphor to demonstrate the value our industry delivers and how that can be leveraged to increase investment in building engineering firms and, by improving understanding of what we do, help with recruitment and retention of skilled people.

Can businesses meet the net zero challenge?

Driven by their customers, investors and staff, more and more businesses are exploring how to cut emissions from their operations and supply chains.

Ahead of COP26 in Glasgow last year, thousands of UK firms made new pledges to net zero and the private sector was present at the summit like never before.

But have these pledges translated into action? And what challenges are companies facing in meeting the targets they’ve set themselves?

The CBI’s Decarbonisation Director will provide an overview of how the corporate world is responding.

The Safe Building – Re-thinking fire safety in buildings

Buildings have long been designed in silos however, one of the biggest challenges in the post-Grenfell environment is the concept that in order to demonstrate compliance, buildings and  their building services need to be considered holistically as a ‘system’.

There are numerous examples where components come together as a single entity  and the challenge for industry is that we need to be able to demonstrate how the integrated systems perform together.   

The key question in the near future will be, if challenged,  can you prove that the design is correct, the installation is in accordance with the design and that the ‘overall system’ is assured to work as intended.  This is the essence of the Golden Thread of information.

LUNCH

Your opportunity to grab a bite to eat and meet our exhibitors

Keynote: Ventilation – the most overlooked building safety issue

Professor Noakes FREng FIMechE, who co-chaired the Environment and Modelling Group of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) during the pandemic, will take the opportunity to restate the importance of addressing ventilation as part of the wider national focus on making buildings safer and healthier.

STEMazing - you can’t be what you can’t see  

The STEM skills shortage is estimated to cost UK employers £1.5bn a year. This cost to the economy is huge, but the cost to humanity will be even higher if don’t plug this gap. Alexandra Knight, founder of the ground-breaking STEMazing initiative to improve diversity in engineering and encourage more young people to take up STEM careers, will outline her blueprint for employers and inspire them to reach out in new ways to find the skills they need.

She will emphasise the importance of role models and mentors to attracting and retaining talent – and explain why the key to innovation in engineering is greater diversity. This will then be followed by a panel discussion featuring STEMazing Ambassadors.

COFFEE AND NETWORKING

Grab a refreshment, meet the exhibitors and network with peers

The Healthy Building – keeping people happy, healthy, and productive 

The pandemic has illustrated the importance of making buildings infection resilient and the influence the building engineering sector has on health critical issues like water and air quality; temperature, humidity, light, and noise.

This session will examine the rapid progress made on all these fronts, but also how much further we must go to make our buildings truly healthy and safe for future generations.

Beer and take-aways

Thanks and close

Don’t get stranded - keeping buildings fit for purpose

The need to keep up with energy efficiency targets and the growing awareness of the role played by buildings in protecting the health and well-being of occupants mean many buildings could soon no longer be fit for purpose. 

This session will examine the risk that many owners and investors will end up with ‘stranded assets’ that can no longer be let or sold for commercial use because they do not meet tightening regulatory and performance obligations – including new minimum energy efficiency standards.

It will consider the importance of performance-based design; commissioning; and ongoing maintenance and refurbishment – and techniques for persuading clients to make better up-front investment decisions.

Boilers versus heat pumps – and other heating myths 

This session will look at the whole range of options available to the domestic heating sector on the road to decarbonisation. It will reject the polarising of the debate which has created a false narrative suggesting homeowners have to make a straight choice between boilers and heat pumps. The future for the residential heating market is likely to be far more nuanced than that, and our expert panel will look at the future for renewable heating technologies, the opportunities for hydrogen and address many of the myths around heat pumps…among other things!

Your Road to Net Zero

Mitsubishi Electric will present on the Road to Net Zero and why there is now an increased focus on the embodied carbon of products and systems in the built environment.

LUNCH

Your opportunity to grab a bite to eat and meet our exhibitors

Too much talk not enough action – the IAQ challenge 

This year’s National Clean Air Day turned the spotlight on the country’s growing indoor air quality (IAQ) crisis with high profile examples of contaminated air inside hospitals, offices, schools, and hospitality venues.

However, it also highlighted the fact that, despite unprecedented focus on this issue, very little action is being taken in thousands of buildings around the country. Better IAQ monitoring has exposed the depth of the crisis, but many people are asking: ‘What now?’

This session will focus on practical solutions and regulatory reforms – and point out that most of the engineering answers are already in place and are cheap to implement. So, there really is no excuse!

Real-world benefits of applying Needlepoint Bi-polar Ionisation as part of a multi-layered approach to improving IAQ

To improve indoor air quality (IAQ), many experts recommend two time-tested approaches, 1) increasing ventilation and 2) upgrading, if possible, air filters in a building’s HVAC system. Each have limitations.
For example, opening windows and doors to bring in ‘fresh air’ often introduces contaminates found outdoors, including ubiquitous fine and ultrafine particulate matter (PM) and high concentrations of Ozone that are harmful to human health. This is especially troublesome for people who live, learn and/or work in congested urban environments that have poor outdoor air quality.
Also, many homes and buildings are old and serviced by antiquated HVAC systems that cannot accommodate higher rated filters. Additionally, higher rated filters are expensive, must be replaced several times a year, and increase resistance to airflow, which forces the HVAC system to work harder, shortening their life cycle while increasing energy costs. Most filters, including high rated ones, have pronounced weak spots capturing microscopic and sub microscopic PM.
When it comes to IAQ, which is complicated, there are no silver bullets. Needlepoint Bi-Polar Ionisation can help deliver real-world benefits by applying it as a multi-layered approach to reduce airborne particles and improve IAQ.
In this presentation, we will discuss application and practical benefits of Needlepoint Bi-Polar Ionisation.

COFFEE AND NETWORKING

Grab a refreshment, meet the exhibitors and network with peers

The Future Engineer

Following on from the main plenary session when we set the scene, this discussion will feature a panel of experts looking at the likely nature of building engineering services 10, 20, 30 and more years into the future.

Our industry is already changing rapidly to meet new challenges like net zero and smart buildings with technologies like AI, virtual reality and remote diagnostics transforming the day-to-day role of the building services specialist.

This session will consider how far, how quickly and in what direction these changes will go and what we all need to be doing to prepare for our life as ‘future engineers’.  

Politics of Climate Change in the built environment

The climate agenda is driven by political sentiment and events, the Government has set unachievable targets and will be asking those in the built environment to deliver.

What levers will they use and what measures will they impose?

The Non Engineer – making engineering work

Not all jobs in engineering are for engineers. In fact, the growing need for more diverse skills means engineering companies are keen to attract people from many different backgrounds who can support engineers and, because they look at things from a non-engineering perspective, can spot new opportunities and suggest different.

This session will give examples of this and discuss how the world of engineering is developing to become more inclusive of people with different abilities. It will also consider how we can expand this approach to help address our skills gaps and deliver more innovation.

Women in Construction - a success story

The number of women coming into the industry is on the rise, but progress on creating a truly diverse workforce remains slow.

This session will feature a line-up of inspirational female engineers determined to make our industry more welcoming and inclusive – and to accelerate the pace of change. They will focus on the positives by demonstrating how barriers to entry are being removed and talk about the many success stories of female engineers who are leading innovation and change across building services.

By focusing on positive journeys and how to inspire companies to attract women, they will provide a blueprint for employers and explain how to develop successful recruitment and retention strategies.

LUNCH

No Information Available

Fire dampers on the front line 

The controversy surrounding passive fire protection continues to grow and the need to carry out more rigorous risk assessments in line with new legislation is creating greater pressure on building owners and managers in the wake of the Grenfell tragedy. 

As a result, the role of fire dampers and smoke dampers has gained unaccustomed attention. What has often been a widely ignored part of a building’s safety systems is now sharply in focus with clients anxious about meeting their statutory obligations. 

This has major implications for damper testing regimes and the competence of the firms employed to locate, test, and maintain these safety critical devices.

This session will introduce the latest BESA fire protection guidance and provide vital new advice on responsibilities and practical actions to keep building occupants safe. 

Industry bodies unite to make a ‘momentous’ shift in the use of data

The annual market for UK building maintenance is estimated at over £60bn, but a large proportion of that money is not being properly targeted to reduce running costs, carbon emissions, and to keep buildings operating safely and efficiently. 

Conference delegates will have the chance to take part in an open forum with representatives from SFG20, RICS and NBS who are working together to align their data structures. This will bridge the gap between the collection of digital information at the construction stage (or during refurbishment projects) to help building managers develop accurate asset registers that can inform maintenance plans.  

COFFEE AND NETWORKING

No Information Available

BESA CAS Audit, What you need to know

A session giving a brief overview of the CAS audit, discovering what the top non-conformances are followed by Q&A with the panel.